Lives Like Dragonflies
by Sheepadmirer
Summary: Death presents itself to us in countless different ways. Their points of view are, after all, just a vanishing bit compared to all the experiences people have ever had about it, and yet it makes all the difference to them. / Main five, ficlets, death.
1. Madoka

**Disclaimer: **Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica and all the characters appearing in this text are property of studio Shaft. This text is completely fan-made and written solely for the purpose of entertainment. I do not benefit in any financial way for writing or publishing it.

**Warnings: **Focuses on death. No graphic descriptions of violence or injuries.

**Summary: **Every person thinks differently of death, as they do of everything. Magical Girls are no exception. Presenting five ways of how they might see it.

**A/N: **So, starting with a not-very-happy story just before Christmas. I apologize for the improper use (or lack) of commas and word order, but those are mostly intentional. Please let me know if you think the rating is completely wrong, or if there are some inexcusable mistakes with the spelling - or the word order, so much that it distracts the reading.

Five drabbles, one chapter for each of them. The order is Madoka, Mami, Sayaka, Kyoko, Homura. Timelines change between drabbles, so watch out for that.

ooo

**Madoka**

Clock is stealing the time away at six am.

Madoka's morning consists of serenity, serenity that resides as well in the air as in the mind, hushed steps on the floor of the corridor as she walks past dad's little garden and Tatsuya's room and bathroom and kitchen, and of tingly enthusiasm in the depth of her stomach, as if something significant is going to happen.

Death comes in broken skies and the wheels of a carelessly driven car. The furry dark one crushes under this cruelty and the girl is hurting even though the death doesn't touch her own self. Death is hurried steps and an immobile corpse of a feline in her lap as she stumbles and falls on the lawn. In death, there is a wistful wish and a voice that asks: "Do you want to save her, Madoka Kaname?"

She raises her head. She is met by eyes of the shade of cherry, gazing at her from the face of a being so bizarre she's never seen anything like it. Madoka doesn't hesitate for a second. Life is always worth protecting.

A penetrating pain slashes through her, it changes and becomes a gem and she grasps it with her hand, and the eyes of the one lying on her chest open and give her a glance that is so, so alive.

Beginning of death, yet not the end of life.


	2. Mami

**Mami**

The crash is something she experiences as flashing shards of pain and grating sounds that resound in her eardrums.

In the midst of the light she sees the shadow of her saviour. Kyuubey. In that fleeting moment of desperation she forgets her parents and utters a wish that she never regrets but feels guilty about forever.

Life goes on and changes. Surreal fights at night, putting her mask back on at morning, surviving from one day to another by acting strong, all the regular aspects of what her existence has become. In the afternoon she may live again. Sometimes Kyuubey comes back to her and she spends her evenings curled up next to the creature that is now her refuge in this world. Falling darkness starts the vicious circle again.

Destiny stops the roulette to the day that is the end of the solitude and the beginning of the end, the day she meets the companions that can save her but need her protection and guidance more than anything now that they are being dragged into this mess. Foremost, she must stop them from making the mistake she couldn't avoid making herself.

Sayaka Miki is brave and goodhearted, but Mami fears for her all the more. Madoka Kaname's smile is tentative but without judgement. She doesn't even know what to wish for, yet she is ready to risk her life to become like her. How strange.

Mami acts like a reliable and unwavering elder sister to her soon-to-be juniors, but in reality she is like a little girl crying in secret, building walls of glass around herself. Madoka's words save her from the abyss of loneliness, where she didn't think she'd ever rise from again.

And she decides, maybe selfishly, that she wont try to delay the other's decision anymore. She clutches Madoka's hands and laughs and suggests she should wish for a cake if she can't think of anything else before the fight is over. Enchanted by delight she leaves to fight Charlotte and thinks she's won the witch.

Death is a surprise, immense horror that paralyzes and sharp fangs against her neck.

"_I don't want to die alone…"_


	3. Sayaka

**Sayaka**

Kyosuke is a childhood friend and a family friend and Sayaka's idol ever after she first sits on the red-clad chair in the enormous hall and hears the melody coming from his violin. Time goes on and the admiration becomes devotion, and no matter how much she teases Madoka, she is in fact the one fallen herself.

The bells of death toll in her ears for the first time when she hears about the accident that paralyzes and destroys dreams.

To her afternoons mean wandering in the CD-shops and visiting the hospital, and she thinks she is comforting him until the boy finally breaks and shouts that she is taunting him and he doesn't have a future anymore. Magic or a miracle would be needed in order for him to heal.

"Both exist", she says, determined. Glowing red eyes watch her from the windowsill.

When she finally understands, the miracle's price feels all too much to pay - now, ever. Worse than death is this corpse playing to be alive, this thing she has become.

Finally she, who had sworn to protect people without any reward, breaks and becomes their despair.

The world is dark and grievous and she didn't even want anything but to give people hope, and now she's not sure they deserved it from the beginning. In her own life she didn't see any great griefs or misfortunes, is now the time to pay for that?

Death is indifference and blinding light that does not care about the shadows that are now her world.


	4. Kyoko

**Kyoko**

She used to think that death is little sister's ribs that she can count by glancing at them and gnawed cores of apples thrown to the back alleys, an insistent hunger that torments and kills.

Wrong.

Death is a midnight's stranger that comes in a familiar figure.  
>Death is the fire of spite that burned his father, and the sparks stole her mother and sister. What was left was a charred pile that perhaps was once her belief.<p>

Now she understands. If you ask something for another without understanding that person, you only bring misfortune upon everyone. So she cares only for herself, works only for her own sake, leaves others to their own devises. This way she can't cause grief to anyone. Her destiny is solely her own, because of that she won't have any regrets, and alone she can take even death as a friend. Death doesn't have a grip on anything that is precious to her.

She doesn't care about anyone else.

(What the hell is that newcomer doing? She will die if this goes on -

- … a witch…?)

Wrong again. Why is it that she can never stand behind what she has sworn to be true?

She will not let this happen. She will not let another dream end like this, not when the lost dreamer herself reminded her about that kind of hope that resides in the fairytales and wonderlands. For this thought she crosses her fingers to the last prayer.

_If there is any god, please hear me out just for this once._

Death is an arrow to the deprived soul and a darkness shining through light that drowns them both.


	5. Homura

**Homura**

Death is more than she can ever explain with mere words.

Its her friends' bloody bodies hitting the ground (she did not want it) despair that fills with its darkness (she did not know) immense grief and hopelessness and fear that makes friends kill each other (she tried to warn.) One moment she thinks death is a rest achieved together with a friend, next she has to kill that precious person with her own hands, shattering her own self. Death is an endless desolation, no matter how many times she tries to prevent it. Death is something she experiences more times than she cares to count.

She is ready to give up, to end up thinking that there is nothing worth protecting in this world that cannot be saved. She knows there is nothing waiting in her death but darkness.

Then Madoka makes her wish and saves them all.

After everything Homura has ever tried to do to prevent it from happening, Madoka makes a contract with Kyuubey. But this time it doesn't lead to a greater destruction. This time, there won't be that horrible despair that swallows them all up whole.

Instead the wish changes the laws of the universe and in exchange, Madoka's existence disappears from it. When Homura cries her name in the void that is left without that cherished presence, Mami and Kyoko look both equally confused. It was Sayaka that just disappeared right before their eyes, after all. Madoka is just a meaningless name to them. Something that never existed. They know nothing of the horrors she saved them from.

But they are alive again, here, right before her eyes. And never again will their wishes turn into curses, because out of their reach there is someone who fights for them eternally, so that they wouldn't have to cry and grieve anymore. Madoka is their hope, even though they don't remember her. Their desperate prayers have been answered.

So Homura continues to fight for the world that her most precious friend wanted to protect. Until the very end.

Death is a reassuring whisper in the mind, the last strike and an anticipated reunion with a dear friend.

As long as they continue to hope, they are never alone.

ooo

**A/N:** I want to note that this last chapter was supposed to come out on 26th, but was delayed because of a power outage that lasted for days. Anyways, **Mental Junkie**, I appreciated your review but must postpone answering to it, since I'm in a hurry right now.


End file.
